Fabric particularly adapted for the manufacture of collars and the like



Oct. 29, 1957 LAWTQN FABRIC PARTICULARLY ADAPTED FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF .COLLARS AND THE LIKE Filed April 7, 1955 'INVENTOR \IIII-ER E z w United States Patent fO FABRIC PARTICULARLY ADAPTED FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF COLLARS AND THE LIKE Oscar S. Lawton, New Bedford, Mass, assignor to Phillips-Jones Corporation, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application April 7, 1955, Serial No. 499,804

3 Claims. (Cl. 139-3855) This invention relates to fabrics particularly adapted for the manufacture of collars, cutfsan'd other garment parts, and has reference to a fabric in which wrinkling, or curling up in a given direction, and throughout the body of the article composed of the fabric, will be effectively resisted to the end that the collar, culf or other article composed of the fabric will indefinitely present a neat appearance.

In my Patent No. 2,658,535, it is suggested that a collar be produced in which certain areas or zones shall be composed of a weave in which the tendency of the fabric to fold or crease in one direction under applied force or stress, shall be resisted by a normal tendency of the fabric, due to said weave, to fold or crease in the opposite direction. The patent suggests that such areas shall be localized, namely, divided into certain zones and subzones to thereby combat the tendency of the fabric to fold or crease in an undersired direction, or in the case of a collar fold-line, to facilitate the folding of the collar along such line.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a fabric for use in collar and cufi construction, in which the overall area of the collar or cuff, excluding the fold line area, shall be so constructed that the tendency of the collar or cuff to fold or crease in an undesired direction shall be resisted by an inherent tendency in the fabric to curl or roll in an opposite direction, which tendency shall exist throughout the whole collar.

When shirt collars are worn, the tendency of the collars to turn up at the ends or to develop folds or creases is often dependent upon the physical structure of the individual wearer. Hence, to provide fold or crease-resistant tendencies in certain specified areas or zones with the thought that folding, curling or creasing is most likely to occur in such areas, and not in others, is to often produce collars which do not completely meet the needs of the individual wearer. With the construction as herein proposed, and wherein crease-resistance is present in an uninterrupted arrangement for the greater portion of the collar, the tendency of the collar to crease at unexpected locations will be resisted.

With these and other objects to be hereinafter set forth in view, I have devised the arrangement of parts to be described and more particularly pointed out in the claims appended hereto.

In the accompanying drawing, wherein an illustrative embodiment of the invention is disclosed,

Fig. 1 is a face view of a blank from which a collar is made according to the present invention;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional view through a portion of the collar, taken substantially on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrows, and

Fig. 3 is an enlarged sectional view, taken substantially on the line 33 of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrows.

In Fig. 1 is disclosed a collar or blank from which a collar is fabricated, the same consisting of a multiply Patented Oct. 29, 1957 fabric, the greater portion of which is of a uniform weave, in the nature of that shown in Fig. 2. The area indicated at 5 constitutes the fold-line area along which the collar has a predisposition to fold, and in this area, the weave is substantially that shown in Fig. 3.

The normal, overall weave area, or that shown in Fig. 2, includes the face warp threads 6, back warps 7, face wefts 8, back wefts 9, binder threads 10 extending between the front and back wefts and the gut warps 11. It will be noted that there are approximately twice the number of front warps 6 as there are rear warps 7, with the result that throughout the area of the collar there is a tendency of the collar to curl inwardly from its outer face toward its rear face, and which curling tendency is in opposition to the normal stresses imposed. on a collar during wear and which stresses tend to cause a collar to curl upwardly or. outwardly. It is obvious therefore, that by the arrangement disclosed, any tendency of the collar throughout its body, to curl upward and outwardly, will be resisted by inherent tendency of the fabric to curl in an opposite direction.

Within the fold area 5, the arrangement disclosed in Fig. 3 is used, wherein the number of front warp threads and the number of rear warps is relatively the same as that found throughout the remainder of the body of the collar. That is to say, there are substantially greater numbers of front warps 6 as compared to the number of rear warps 7, and in this fold area of the collar, the gut warps 10 are omitted. The tendency of the collar in this area to curl or fold inwardly is helpful since it is Within this area that the fold line of the collar is located.

By the use of weaves as above described, a collar is produced which will be of uniform external appearance. That is to say, the entire external face of the collar will be uniform in appearance, since the front warps and weft are uniform in number for the entire area of the collar. Because of the construction described, the entire collar exhibits a uniform tendency to curl inwardly, or from its outer face toward its rear face, which tendency opposes the usual tendency of the collar to crease or fold under applied stress or strain imposed upon it during wear. As a result, the curling up of the pointed or other terminals of the collar is strongly resisted, and this not only in selected areas, since creases or folds in collars occur not in the same location but vary according to the contours of the wearer, but throughout the entire area of the collar so that a collar of this described construction will be likely to remain neat and uncreased during hard wear.

It will be apparent from the foregoing, that a fabric is presented in which a uniformity in weave throughout the collar is presented; in which there exists throughout the entire collar a tendency to curl in a direction opposite to that in which the ordinary collar will curl under applied stress, and in which there is thus set up a resistance to undesired creasing and curling wherever it may tend to occur throughout the entire area of the collar.

Having described a single embodiment of the invention, it is obvious that the same is not to be restricted thereto, but is broad enough to cover all structures coming within the scope of the annexed claims.

What I claim is:

l. A multi-ply fabric having a fold zone comprising, a front ply composed of face warps and face wefts each uniformly distributed throughout the fabric, a back ply composed of back warps and back wefts each uniformly distributed throughout the fabric, gut warps located between the front ply and back ply except in the fold zone, binders connecting the face and back plies uniformly distributed throughout the fabric, the back ply containing fewer warps than the front ply whereby there is a tendency throughout the entire area of the fabric for said 3 fabric to curl inwardly from its front surface toward its back surface to thereby resist the curling of the fabric in a reverse direction under stress during wear of an article of wearing apparel made of said fabric.

2. A multieply fabric ihavinga fold zone comprising, .a front ply composed of 'face warps and face wefts each uniformly distributed throughout the fabric, a :back ply composed of back warps and back wefts each uniformly distributed throughout the fabric, binders connecting the front and back plies uniformly distributed throughout the fabric, gut warps disposed between the plies except in the fold zone, the back ply containing approximately 'onehalf of the number of warps as the front ply whereby'the fabric tends to curl from the front faceiitoward the back face for its entire area to thereby resist a reverse curling of thefabric during use.

3. A multi-ply collar fabric having a fold zone and a body zone comprising, a fold ,tzone including a front ply composed of face warps and face'wefts each uniformly distributed throughout the fabric, .a back ply composed throughout the fabric, binders connecting the front and back plies uniformly distributed throughout the fabric,

the back warps being considerably less in number than the front warps throughout the fabric, whereby there isa tendency Within said fold zone of the fabric to curl inwardly from its outer face toward its inner face, the uniform weave in the body zone being similar to that in the fold zone except .for the inclusion of gut warps between the front and-back plies whereby, the fabric in the body zone has an all-over tendency to curl rearwardly to thereby resist curling reversely during wear of 'a collar made from said fabric.

References Cited .in the file of this patent UNITED .STATES PATENTS 1,610,576 Moore Dec. 14, 1926 2,322,889 Shepherd et a1 June 29, 1943 2,393,829 'Skinkle etal. Jan. 29, 1946 2,658,535 Lawton Nov. 10, 1953 

